Third Amendment
The Third Amendment is an amendment to the Lovian Constitution and was proposed in early 2010 by Prime Minister Yuri Medvedev, with the inclusion of two proposals by King Dimitri I of Lovia. The proposals that were accepted by the required majority in the Second Chamber, concerned the lowering of the power of the monarch and Prime Minister, changes in the citizenship registration and several changes in regard to the monarchy. The entire cluster of changes was accepted March 10th, 2010, by Congress.Source: Second Chamber (March 10 2010). History kicked off the informal discussing of possible amendments]] In the 2010 Federal Elections, most competing parties promised Constitutional reform. Prime Minister Yuri Medvedev was the first to bring these issues to Congress in his Five Point Dialogue. All five Congressial parties were invited. He said that he "believed it would have a higher success rate than when we should have five separate proposals."Source: First Chamber (Jan. 28 2010). Eventually, by the end of January and even before the actual inauguration of Congress, an informal agreement was reached about some Constitutional changes. February 21st, Prime Minister Medvedev proposed three different proposal clusters to the First Chamber: * A cluster of proposals concerning the power of the ruling monarch and the Prime Minister; * A proposal to abolish undemocratic local regulations; * A proposal to alter citizenship regulations. LOWIA, the Walden Libertarian Party, the ruling monarch King Dimitri and the proposing Progressive Democrats all reacted in favor of the first cluster. In the Second Chamber, all but one Members of the Congress supported the proposal. It was accepted March 10th by a 91.67% majority. In the First Chamber, there was little response to the second proposal. In the Second, five Members voted in favor, of which three were Progressives. Four Members opposed it, all being from different parties. Given the scattered voting and the uncertainty surrounding the proposal, King Dimitri, Lars Washington and Andy McCandless abstained. The proposal did not pass.Source: Second Chamber (March 10 2010). Medvedev's last proposal was replaced by an alternative version written by King Dimitri. The original bill included very little changes. King Dimitri's reform bill, on the other hand, was a more radical rewriting of the original Article 3. In the Second Chamber, all members of the Congress favored the bill. It passed March 5th.Source: Second Chamber (March 5 2010). Beside Medvedev's three clusters, a fourth bill was proposed in the First Chamber on February 25th, by King Dimitri I of Lovia. The bill included a rather radical rewriting of the Constitutional Article 1B concerning the monarchy. McCrooke, Ilava and Medvedev all responded in favor of the changes. In the Second Chamber, all Members backed the proposal, with the exception of Alexandru Latin, who opposed the fact that the King retained his Membership by Right to the Congress. The bill was easily passed by March 5th with a 91.67% majority.Source: Second Chamber (March 5 2010). Content Lowering the power of the monarch and Prime Minister Separation of powers Before, the Constitution stated (Article 1 A.3): :Lovia shall be organized based on the principle of the separation and balance of powers - legislative, executive, and judicial - within the framework of constitutional democracy. The Third Amendment added the following sentence to Article 1 A.3: :Therefore no person is entitled to combine a top function in two or three branches of government; thus, the ruling monarch, the Prime Minister and the Supreme Court Judge shall be no less than three different persons. Mid-term and Crisis Elections According to Yuri Medvedev, the executive power is too large in the field of mid-term elections, in comparison to Congress, "where the real sovereignty lies." Before, the Constitution stated (Article 8.1.4): :In case of a large population boom, the Prime Minister can organize mid-term elections. This is replaced by: :Mid-term elections can be organized if proposed in Congress and approved by a Congressial majority. An Article 8.1.5 is added: :New federal elections have to be held when more than half of the Members of the Congress are inactive; either self-declared or if they have not edited for over a month (31 days); or when the Prime Minister steps down. Impeachment procedure In order to give Congress more strength, an impeachment procedure is built in, that will allow Congress to dismiss the entire government. To Article 8.2, two additions have been made: :Art. 8.2.3: When Congress has lost its trust in the incumbent government, it can vote a motion of distrust. When this motion is accepted by a normal majority (50%), both government and Congress are dissolved and new federal elections are to be held. :Art. 8.2.4: When the Prime Minister and his government resign, Congress is dissolved and new federal elections are to be held. Federal Secretaries Further more, Medvedev argued that Congress should be able to question Federal Secretaries and other executives of the government. Also, he considered the power of the King and PM in the composition of the government too great. Before, Article 8.2.1 read as follows: :The ruling monarch and new Prime Minister will chose which Members of the Congress will become Secretaries of a certain Department. If they can’t agree, the Congress will be asked to vote. Article 8.2.2 read: :The ruling monarch and the Prime Minister can fire a Secretary: 1. If there is a good reason; 2. If they (the monarch and the Prime Minister) can agree. If not, the Congress can be asked to vote. These are replace by the following: :The monarch and Prime Minister will chose which Members of the Congress will become Secretaries of a certain Department. Their proposal needs to be accepted by a normal majority in Congress. :Congress should be able to question all executing members of government - of any level - about their activities. When they have lost their trust in the questioned person, they can vote a motion of distrust against him or her. When this motion is accepted by a normal majority (50%), he or she has to resign and a replacement has to be proposed by the Prime Minister and approved by Congress. Changes concerning the citizenship The proposal written by King Dimitri I of Lovia concerning the citizenship, read as follows: :''Article 3 – The Lovian citizenship'' :# Every inhabitant of Lovia has the right to become a Lovian citizen. :## An inhabitant of Lovia is every person who has a domicile (permanent residence) within Lovia. :## There are requirements to become a Lovian citizen: :### He or she must reside in Lovia. :### He or she must have made at least 50 edits. :#### Acts of vandalism or related edits are not to be included in this count. :### He or she must truthfully provide the following personal information: :#### His or her official name that consists of at least one given name and a surname. :#### His or her biological sex. :#### His or her domicile (permanent residence); this being a full adress of a residence in a Lovian city or town. :# The rights of a citizen are described in Article 2. :# One's citizenship may be taken away as a punishment in a trial. In concreto, this meant a formalization of the existing article, as well as some additions and reworkings: * Having a domicile in Lovia is added as a necessity to be considered an inhabitant of Lovia, and thus to become a citizen. * The requirement of "50 or more useful edits" has been changed into "at least 50 edits", with the exception of "acts of vandalism or related edits". Changes concerning the monarchy King Dimitri's rewriting of Article 1 B reads as follows: :''Article 1 B - Lovia is a monarchy, ruled by the ruling monarch.'' :# The ruling monarch is the person who legally inherited the throne from the previous ruling monarch. He or she is thus a descendant of the first Lovian monarch, King Arthur I of Lovia (Arthur Noble). :## The ruling monarch can be either male (the King) or female (the Queen). :# The partner of the ruling monarch is the person who legally married the ruling monarch. She is a member of the royal family, but does not enjoy privileges over the citizens of Lovia. :# The person who legally inherits the Lovian throne, after the previous ruling monarch has either deceased or abdicated, is the person who is most directly related in terms of kinship to the previous ruling monarch. :# The heir to the throne will sign the Constitution upon his coronation. :# The ruling monarch is Member of the Congress by Right, meaning he is automatically granted a seat in the Lovian Congress. :## ''The ruling monarch is thus not permitted to participate in elections to Congress. :# The ruling monarch has the right to demand financial support from the Department of Finances, in which case the Secretary of Finance can decide to grant the ruling monarch an amount of money, in agreement with Congress. :# With the exception of the ruling monarch in function, no member of the royal family is granted extra-legal privileges. Each member of the royal family, with the exception of the ruling monarch in function, is a regular citizen as determined by the Constitution. Numerable changes have been made: * The article has been formalized. * Frequent recurring terms, such as "ruling monarch", have been made more unform. * The paragraph concerning the heir to the Lovian throne has been simplified. * The Queen's Membership of the Congress by Right, which had not been used so far, is deleted. * The paragraph stating the King and Queen's right to be part of government has been deleted, being redundant. * The monarch's right to financial contributions from the Department of Finance has been deleted. Instead, a new sentence was added that gave the Congress the right to decide on possible financial demands by the monarch. * The monarch's right to grant extra residences to citizens, which has never been used, is deleted. * The monarch's right to grant Royal Warrants has been deleted. References and notes See also * Constitution * Five Point Dialogue Category:Constitution